you are my world ~ harry potter

-harry and rani

The autumn breeze flowed in the air and flowed in from the open windows near the staircase leading to the Gryffindor common room. The area was decorated for the fall season. Twinkling strings of artificial candles were enchanted to dimly light up the cozy area, while a fresh smell of pumpkin filled the air. This made the whole area exponentially cozier. Many Gryffindors would spend their nights in the common room and spending time with their friends, making unforgettable memories. Even with Rani.

Many students reminisced about their homes and found themselves finding solace in the comforting environment, especially during the fall and winter seasons. It was always lively.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and the twins were gathered in the common room in front of the fireplace. Rani stood behind the corridors on the last step of the stairs leading into the girls' dorms watching the group as she gathered her things to join them.

She made her way through the couches lugging her full bag when she met George's eye.

"Rani!" He exclaimed, the others looked at her happily. Rani smiled at George and briskly arrived at where he was sitting. Fred and Harry moved apart to make room for Rani and she plopped down between the two, pulling out her books from class.

She took out her defense against the dark arts textbook and watched the others as they focused intently on their homework- even Fred and George which was surprising, considering how they were often found to be devising devilish plans for pranks on their professors.

The time period after class was Rani's favorite. The 7 friends, which sometimes included Neville and Luna would pile into the armchairs in the common room and circle around the fireplace, and quickly get through their work before dinner. After the latter would eat, they come back where they would all have enjoyed eachother's company until the wee hours of the morning— often extremely tired the morning after as they would all stumble sleepily into their first-hour class.

Everyone had settled in their seats, occasionally glancing up to see someone walking through the fat lady portrait. It was mostly silent, apart from the faint sounds of ink dips, quills, and turning parchment amplified throughout the room.

"Rani," a voice said next to her, which obviously belonged to Harry as she turned around to look at him, his face right in front of her. His potions textbook was spread out in front of him, with messy notes written small in the margins of the words and ink streaks on pieces of crumpled parchment.

"Yes?" She whispered, keeping her voice low to not draw too much attention to the others. "Do you need help?" She replied knowingly as Harry immediately nodded yes.

It wasn't a surprise to Rani seeing Harry needing help on Potions. Harry and Rani were in the same class, and would often goof off and make fun of Professor Snape, instead of paying attention. This would occasionally earn them detention when Snape caught them. The pair would frequently leave class in utter confusion, after a whole hour and a half of not paying attention, and Rani would always have to beg Hermione to explain the concepts they missed to Rani before she would attempt to help Harry.

Rani sighed and got out her potions textbook, the words on the page making absolutely no sense as she tried to comprehend them.

"Don't understand either?" Harry whispered into her ear.

"No," Rani replied bluntly, then turned to Hermione, who was quietly focused on her schoolwork behind a massive pile of books. "I don't think we should disturb her," She softly said to Harry, to which he nodded.

"Hm," Harry thought, "It's okay, I don't think it's that important. It's not like we have any exams coming up soon," and shrugged.

The group all sat in silence for some more minutes, Fred and George talking amongst themselves while Harry and Rani ditched their schoolwork and engaged themselves by playing little games with their fingers, attempting to do their homework, and eventually giving up and engaging in soft conversations about whatever they thought about.

~

At some point Rani could tell Harry was getting somewhat restless as he started bouncing his knee up and down subconsciously, looking so absent-minded as he stared off into the fireplace. Rani looked around to see Ron fast asleep on the sofa next to them, Hermione still working on her schoolwork, and Fred and George gone. A few moments passed and Harry then leaned over to Rani.

"I'm going to Lupin's do you want to come with me?" He whispered into Rani's ear, noticing her similar demeanor.

Rani immediately nodded, her face appearing in clear boredom. The two of them got up from the couch without being questioned, and made their way out of the common room, tripping over some books left outside the Fat Lady portrait. Harry began walking in a direction, more fast-paced than expected. Rani fell in step alongside harry, his long legs walking too fast for her to keep up with.

"Merlin Harry, slow down a bit would you?" Rani said, exasperated.

His green eyes looked down at his friend as he smirked and slowed his pace, "alright."

It took Rani a moment to not get lost in his eyes. As best of friends as they were there was something captivating about him. She didn't know if it was his messy brown hair, his emerald eyes, or his goofy adorable smile, or even his precious clumsy persona, but Rani found herself wanting to spend more and more time with him every day, whether she wanted to admit it or not.

Harry and Rani met on the Hogwarts express first year when he and Ron were looking for a compartment. Everywhere else was full, except for the small corner in the back where an anxious-looking Indian girl with frizzy hair and a big nose named Rani Manal sat. Harry took no interest in her awkward features or her lack of social skills and plopped down right next to her, immediately starting a conversation and offering her some of his food.

Rani immediately warmed up to Harry. At the age of eleven, she developed an anxiety disorder and found it difficult to make friends without acting like a completely different person, and was consistently insecure about her skin color, and facial features. Harry didn't notice these things, and began talking to her as if they had known each other for years. To Harry, Rani didn't feel the need to change what she was like. She didn't feel anxious around him anymore.

They've only grown closer since then. Both Harry and Rani now looked a lot different than they did in their first year; Rani's hair calmed down a bit and had turned into beautiful curls, and her face readjusted to her big brown eyes and nose. Harry grew taller and his face looked much older, as an expected result of time, and his intense quidditch regimen gave him a toned body.

With this, as Harry grew older, many of the younger students began taking a liking to him. He was super well known around the school; in the past, for his riddance of Lord Voldemort and now for his physical appearance. He had at least 10 students ask him on a date every valentine's day weekend. Whether it's because he was the "chosen one," or perhaps because of his attractive physique, Rani could never figure it out. Regardless, the two of them trusted each other and spent a lot of time together as best friends.

They continued walking until they reached the opposite end of the castle, in front of the door to Professor Lupin's classroom.

"Take your time, it's probably important, but we have 15 minutes before dinner, and we need to get there soon so Peeves doesn't make a mess out of our empty spots," Rani said to Harry, giggling as it was one of the pair's inside jokes.

Harry noticed the clock and leaned over to her laughing.

"It'll just be a minute," He chuckled before knocking on the door.